The present invention pertains to pharmaceutical delivery devices, and, in particular, to a manually powered delivery device for injecting a pharmaceutical.
Patients suffering from a number of different diseases frequently must inject themselves with pharmaceuticals. As some patients find it difficult to insert a standard syringe needle into one's skin and then operate the syringe to inject the pharmaceutical, a variety of devices have been proposed to facilitate the injection process.
One type of device automatically inserts a needle and then automatically injects a dose of medication through that inserted needle. While useful, these devices may be expensive to provide due to their complexity, and further may be undesirable to users who want more control over the injection process.
A wide assortment of injection pens are also available, which pens make manual injections easier for some people. However, most such pens, which may be suited for variable dose injections, are unnecessarily complicated if needed for only a single use.
Another type of device disclosed in a WO 2007/047200 allows for a manual needle insertion and manual injection of medication in a user friendly fashion. However, this type of device provides for a manual and not an automatic needle retraction following injection into a protected position within the housing, which may not be intuitive for all users.
Thus, it would be desirable to provide a device that can overcome one or more of these and other shortcomings of the prior art.